Darwins Voyage

1832 August 19-"Darwin sent off his first load of specimens and notes to Henslow in Cambridge. He had doubts about the quality of his work, and feared Henslow would think the shipment was quite small. The specimens included several rocks, tropical plants, four bottles of animals in spirits, many beetles, and various marine animals; all numbered, catalogued and described."

1833 August 13-"Darwin arrived at General Rosas camp and received permission to proceed overland to Bahia Blanca. He spent his days riding on the plains, while his nights were spent drinking, smoking cigars, and singing songs with the gauchos. Darwin seemed to take quite a liking to living on the open plains. While at Bahia Blanca he uncovered the complete fossil of a very large animal that he could not identify at all (it turned out to be a giant ground sloth). Oddly enough, the fossil was located below a layer of white sea shells, similar to the layer he found on the island of Santiago. This puzzled Darwin a great deal because it was obviously a very old specimen, but how did it end up below an ocean deposit, and why did it become extinct?"

1834 late October-"Another shipment of specimens was sent to Revd. Henslow. This one included many bird skins, insects, seeds, some plants, and water and gas samples from some hot springs in the Andes Mountains."

1835 September 18-"They sailed to the north-east end of Chatham. Capt. FitzRoy and others went on a short inland excursion. Darwin and John Stokes (assistant surveyor) were also put on shore and explored on their own. Darwin examined the huge tortoises here, but collected just ten plants, most of which he thought were unimpressive little things. Eighteen tortoises were brought on board as food."

1836 January 16-"Darwin started on a 130 mile inland trip to Bathurst, New South Wales. Along the way he made observations of the wildlife and was so astonished by the creatures he saw (namely, the odd-looking platypus) that he surmised there must have been a separate creation just for these odd creatures. On his return he visited Capt. King, the commander of the first Beagle surveying voyage. He was now living on his farm just outside Sydney."